The manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor a particular party — drawing lines to choose your voters before they choose you.
From Elbridge Gerry, Governor of Massachusetts, + salamander. In 1812, Gerry approved redistricting that created a district so oddly shaped it resembled a salamander. The Boston Gazette published a cartoon calling it a "Gerry-mander." The portmanteau stuck.
Gerrymandering is named after a salamander-shaped district drawn in 1812. Over 200 years later, the practice has only gotten more sophisticated — computer algorithms now draw districts with surgical precision. The salamander evolved into a supercomputer, but the trick is the same.
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